Cyberbee Gallery

Primary Source Collections

Most cinder cones form during relatively short eruptions, measured in a few months or years. At the peak of Sunset Crater's activity, at least 9 other cinder cones, numerous smaller spatter cones and fumaroles, and 3 lava flows were simultaneously active along a 6-mile-long fissure, forming a “curtain-of-fire” style eruption much like those observed today in Hawaii. These volcanic features remain visible as rows of small cinder cones to the southeast along the fissure, and appear to form a line of successively older parts of the overall Sunset Crater eruption.